Part of planning the integrated robotics cross-curricular unit was to determine the table design and what types of missions the students would try to accomplish when programming the robot. The final table design included a home base for the robot and an outline of the fifty states broken into the five major regions of the U.S. Each region had at least one mission on the table that related to a topic studied earlier in the classroom. A description of each mission is outlined in the document below.
REFLECTION
I researched and researched and researched different ways the study of robotics was being used in the classroom. I also researched ideas for developing a table around the students study of the five U.S. regions which is the primary topic of study in fourth grade social studies. I met several times with the technology director to consider if the table would mirror a table layout similar to ones I had worked with in FLL or have a completely different feel. We decided to stick with a FLL mindset in order to have some ideas to go off of.
Finally, the technology director and I sat down to hash out the final table design which directly aligned to the missions. We determined a final theme for the table, including missions that supported the classroom content. When designing a table, there were many things to keep in mind. First, the missions needed to be spread out so that the robot was able to maneuver to different spots on the table but also not too spread out to encourage different aspects of programming: the use of light sensors, touch sensors, ultrasonic sensors, rotations, and so on. Another thing to keep in mind was how we were going to design the mission items on the table. We looked back through past tables in FLL to see if we could recycle any constructed items. For example, we took a house from a previous table and destroyed the roof to use in our hurricane disaster mission. We also used the truck from a previous table to use as a deliverable item, to represent sending supplies to the natural disaster location. We determined point values for each mission based on the difficulty of the mission. Some missions required delivering an item, some required retrieving items and some missions required moving an item from once spot to another, all using the robot.
The students were permitted to attempt any mission, in any order. Due to minimal time in the schedule, we decided to provide each team with the same basic robot design. From that point the students had to design any attachments and write all the programs as a team. This is where the aspects of teamwork, collaboration, communication, critical thinking skills and problem solving all came into play. The process allowed the students to realize their own strengths and weaknesses as cooperative learners and I consistently met with teams and individuals to assist in this learning process.
REFLECTION
I researched and researched and researched different ways the study of robotics was being used in the classroom. I also researched ideas for developing a table around the students study of the five U.S. regions which is the primary topic of study in fourth grade social studies. I met several times with the technology director to consider if the table would mirror a table layout similar to ones I had worked with in FLL or have a completely different feel. We decided to stick with a FLL mindset in order to have some ideas to go off of.
Finally, the technology director and I sat down to hash out the final table design which directly aligned to the missions. We determined a final theme for the table, including missions that supported the classroom content. When designing a table, there were many things to keep in mind. First, the missions needed to be spread out so that the robot was able to maneuver to different spots on the table but also not too spread out to encourage different aspects of programming: the use of light sensors, touch sensors, ultrasonic sensors, rotations, and so on. Another thing to keep in mind was how we were going to design the mission items on the table. We looked back through past tables in FLL to see if we could recycle any constructed items. For example, we took a house from a previous table and destroyed the roof to use in our hurricane disaster mission. We also used the truck from a previous table to use as a deliverable item, to represent sending supplies to the natural disaster location. We determined point values for each mission based on the difficulty of the mission. Some missions required delivering an item, some required retrieving items and some missions required moving an item from once spot to another, all using the robot.
The students were permitted to attempt any mission, in any order. Due to minimal time in the schedule, we decided to provide each team with the same basic robot design. From that point the students had to design any attachments and write all the programs as a team. This is where the aspects of teamwork, collaboration, communication, critical thinking skills and problem solving all came into play. The process allowed the students to realize their own strengths and weaknesses as cooperative learners and I consistently met with teams and individuals to assist in this learning process.